Business plan

This document outlines the business plan for our practice, Studio Neom. Within this plan, we briefly touch upon the key Values behind the practice, our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, Research into the future context of our business, Financial Plan, Marketing Strategy and Future Predictions for our firm.

At Studio Neom, we aim to sculpt the world we live in into a better place; a place derived from meaningful design and

socio-ecological responsibility.

It is important to note that the aforementioned points are only touched upon within this business plan, to see each section in more detail please check out the rest of our website!

CONTENTS

1. Our Practice

Studio Neom was founded by 5 architects and design graduates. We all attended Nottingham Trent University for our BArch in Architecture. See here for our personal profiles.

Imogen Bennett – Admin Manager

Imogen oversees running the website blogs and tracking our weekly meeting minutes. She has a master’s in interior architecture and focuses on the finer details in projects. She also stays connected with clients and the local community about ongoing projects.

Louis Huband – Technological Manager

Louis is a fully qualified architect who oversees design and construction. He ensures we are using sustainable design processes and helps train the staff in new software for the practice to utilize. Louis is also one of our architects that work directly with clients on both the R-Build sector and the other housing projects we do.

Elliot Clunn – Image Manager and Graphic Designer

Elliot is the graphics designer for our practice. He makes all decisions regarding graphics, presentation styles and website design. Elliot is responsible for creating content for all our socials and is the main creator of visuals and rendering models for presenting to clients.

Amnah Yusaf – Marketing Manager

Amnah is responsible for running our social media and contacting clients to promote our firm and encourage sales. She oversees the strategies and tactics in the way we market our practice and research current trends to keep up to date with what is gaining traction from the public and our clients. Amnah is also a key researcher for projects, for example, site analysis and history.

Tommy Fidler – Financial Manager

Tommy is in charge of the finances of our firm. He is responsible for researching our investment and start-up costs, wages, and potential income. He also projects finances for future scenarios, keeps track of all finances and advises clients regarding costs and payments.

2. Our Ethos and Design

Our ethos is to harness both innovative and sympathetic material ecology and construction methods to create more environmentally and sociologically aware architecture.

Our practice is split into two sectors – R-Build and ‘Other.’

The R-Build sector specialises in designing adaptable, environmentally friendly, and pleasant refuges for those within society who need it most. R-Build stands for Refuge-Build, and it consists of simple structures constructed off-site. These structures would be supplied to charities/councils/local authorities who can then use them to house refuge groups, such as domestic abuse victims and the homeless. The units come in 3 variations, The R-Build for 1 person, 2 people and lastly for a small family of 3-4 people, each unit coming with a respective basic fit-out.

R-Build is our specialist area of the firm but would still encapsulate all our practices beliefs about sustainability and using innovative materials and construction methods. This sector would make more environmentally and socially aware architecture readily available for those who need it.

Having this sector as part of our business also aligns us with the UN SDG Goals 5, 10 and 12 and we pledge to make it part of our mission to bring more light to these goals and come closer to them.

Goal 12 -

Responsible Consumption & Production. By achieving Net Zero Carbon Emissions in all R-Build projects, harnessing modular construction and low embodied carbon materials whilst also ensuring the unit can be disassembled and recycled at the end of its lifetime.

Goal 5 –

Achieving Gender Equality. As a result of the pandemic domestic abuse cases and violence against women and children is rising. By working with the relevant charities, we aim to curate safe refuges for people and families in danger.

Goal 10 –

Reduce Inequality. By working with the relevant charities, we aim to tackle the homelessness epidemic in Britain by curating safe temporary housing for the Homeless and those in extreme financial hardship. In addition, our R-Build projects aim to ease the introduction into society for both refugees and asylum seekers by providing emergency and temporary housing respectively, giving them the start and support they need.

The ‘Other’ sector of our business encapsulates all other aspects of designing. We would never want to limit ourselves and are committed to designing sustainably, so we created this separate sector for bespoke projects that clients can contact us for and harness all of our beliefs into their design ideas.

3. SWOT ANALYSIS

When starting our practice, we analysed all our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. From this, we were able to determine what our overall firm's SWOT was.

Below is a table of Studio Neom’s SWOT Analysis.

Our practice is deeply passionate about helping solve the homelessness crisis and implementing sustainable design wherever possible. We understand how important it is to do what we can for the environment while designing, rather than an afterthought. We are also very innovative and at the forefront of using new materials that have a less environmental impact.

Although we are using sustainable design, we are not very experienced with listed buildings, and this could cause an issue when trying to redevelop areas within council planning guidelines. We also tend to stick to what we know when designing and although we like to experiment with new materials and software, the end design is always similar to the R-Build sector. This could mean that we end up limiting what we can do as our clients will only see R-Build and not what else we are capable of. To combat this, we will have to make sure there is an equal balance within the practice of what projects we are taking on.

Some things that could potentially be a threat to our firm would be having issues with finding clients that are as passionate about our sustainable designs as we are, however, we see it as our job to influence the client into making better choices for their projects. We also know that software is always being developed and this could be a concern for our designers as they will need to be trained to a high standard to use the programs. To cope with the ever-changing software, our technical manager will brief and train staff when needed to ensure they are utilising the technology available.

In contrast to the threats that our firm faces, we have many opportunities that could arise. For example, we would have the chance to redevelop cities and make sustainable design more available for clients. We also have strong links in the industry which could land us projects with contractors and clients. As previously mentioned, an integral part of our ethos and practice is being able to contribute towards solving the homelessness epidemic and this allows us to make a direct impact on people’s lives.

4. Research

This section collates all the research we have done to inform our decisions about our ethos, designs and other aspects of the firm. The main topics of research consist of our clientele, other firms in the sector, plans for Nottingham 2028, homelessness, and technological aspects. Click here to see our research page.

Our Clientele

We started by researching our clientele to understand what potential needs they would require us to meet. Our clientele is split between the two sectors of our business, namely R-Build and ‘Other.’

R-build aims to work with Charities supporting the homeless and victims of domestic abuse, local authorities, and developers to curate a low-carbon and humanistic approach to emergency and temporary housing.

‘Other’ aims to work with developers, local authorities, and individuals to curate innovative, low-carbon and contextually responsive homes and civic buildings.

To learn more about our research into our intended clientele please see ‘Our Clients’ Research Document.

Other Firms

To understand the market and sector that we are competing in, we researched what other practices are offering within Nottingham, but also similar practices to what we are proposing to do.

One firm that has a similar scheme is Studio Bark with their U-Build projects. U-Build offers three types of orders; Garden Studios, Homes, and fit out/Furniture. Their designs follow a very simple construction method that ensures their customers need no building experience or expertise. Their U-Build scheme inspired our R-Build sector hugely, however we felt that they were missing a potential sociological duty with their immensely practical modular ‘do-it-yourself' design system; with respect to the fact, they are not using it to lessen the effects of the homelessness crisis.

Environmental Factors Research

We hear about it all the time, but what actually is climate change? In simple terms it is the long-term shift in average weather patterns across the world as a result of global temperatures rising due to increased levels of greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.

We as a practise must fit into the climate change equation. We are going to put strategies and tactics in place to meet the 2028 and 2050 carbon neutral goals set out by Nottingham City Council and the Government respectively. By adopting sustainable design principles and business practises that co-align with the goals set out by the UN and those aforementioned, we are one step closer to reducing climate change and restoring our environment.

Some of our strategies to reduce our environmental impact include achieving net zero operational carbon in all projects, achieving net zero embodied carbon in all projects, maintaining and improving ecology and biodiversity in all projects, minimising waste within all projects, minimising waste within the office, reducing carbon emissions within the office and using ethically sourced products. All of which co-align with the goals set out by Nottingham City Council to achieve Net Zero Carbon by 202. To see our tactics for achieving these strategies please see our Strategies and Tactics Document.

Nottingham 2028

Site context is an integral part of architecture and we wanted to understand the area in which our practice is based. Nottingham has made an ambitious target to become Carbon Neutral by 2028, the first carbon neutral city in the UK. This has a huge effect on the morphology of our practise. We must design a practise that is heading towards carbon neutrality if is it to succeed within the future vision of Nottingham. The framework for achieving the 2028 target is broken down into four sections:

Carbon Reduction – the reduction of carbon emissions from Transport, The Built Environment, Energy Generation, Waste & Water and Consumption.

Carbon Removal – capturing carbon and offsetting residual greenhouse gas emissions through local carbon sequestration using nature and geology and carbon capture through negative emission technologies to capture carbon from the atmosphere and at a point of source.

Resilience and Adaption – addresses the actions Nottingham must take to protect against the unavoidable impacts of climate change such as flooding and extreme temperatures.

Ecology and Biodiversity – explains the importance of green and open spaces, and biodiversity for climate change mitigation and adaption.

To find out more about our technological research please see our ‘Environmental Factors’ research document.

Homelessness In Nottingham

A key part of our Ethos is helping solve the homelessness problem, particularly in Nottingham and the surrounding areas.

Homelessness is a huge social problem that currently needs addressing. More than 200,000 people across the UK are experiencing homelessness, with a large number of people sleeping rough in Nottingham, we have decided to do something about it. The UK government has put aside a large amount of money for local councils to help those in need. It is our mission to work with Nottingham city council and local charities such as CRISIS and Framework to help find a solution.

To find out more about our homelessness research please see our ‘Homelessness in Nottingham’ research document.

Funding

As part of our ethos is about helping the homeless and building shelters for emergency housing, we researched into what funding there is regarding the homeless and how we could make this feasible as part of our business.

We plan on working with the council to build these structures and looked into what grants are available for charities that we can also work with, such as Framework. Please see our 'Funding Research' document for our findings.

Technological Factors Research

After deciding on our ethos, we had to investigate the different sustainable aspects of designing, in particular material ecology.

We as a practice believe in harnessing innovative low-carbon materials and construction methods such as the use of Wool Brick as an alternative to ordinary brick or the use of Bio-fabrication for Mycelium bricks, paneling and floorboards. We also believe in harnessing low-carbon and modern-day communication systems such as video calling. In addition, could VR and AR technologies be harnessed to develop our systems of architectural communication? Lastly, by using a third-party sustainability certification system such as BREEAM, we can assure our buildings and projects are built to the highest levels of environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

To find out more about our technological research please see our ‘Technological Factors’ research document.

5. Strategies and Tactics

Strategies and Tactics for Business Plan

As part of the development of our business plan, we outlined the strategies and tactics that would aid in following through our Ethos of designing Sociologically and Environmentally conscious architecture. Furthermore, the strategies help develop the structure and character of our practise towards achieving our ethos, and the tactics outline how the strategies will be accomplished. These must be SMART; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. Moreover, if the tactics are carried out, we should meet our business targets. The strategies and tactics we carried out were with respect to the following areas of our practise; Finance, Sustainability, Admin, Design Control, Design Ethos, Social Media & Publicity, Training, Research and Technological Management.

Please see here for our Strategies and Tactics Document.

6. Financial Plan

This section will talk about the finances regarding our start up and commercial viability. Click here to see our full financial plan.

How Will We Demonstrate Commercial Viability?

We have demonstrated commercial viability by calculating all our start-up costs, fixed monthly outgoings and periodic outgoings, and comparing this to our estimated income for the first year. Please refer to the finance document and excel spreadsheet for more information on this.

Fig 2. Total incomings and outgoings

After the first year we estimated a profit of £40281.19, this means 14.3% of our income will become profit, which we see as a massive success, considering we have also withdrawn over half of our original owner contributions, and paid back 50% of the original bank loan. (This does not include money from bank loan or owner contributions, it’s a true figure of the profit we will receive from work completed in the first year)

With this comparison we can assume our company will be viable.

Where Will We Receive Set-up Funding?

After plotting our estimated outgoings and income for the entire year, in May we accumulated a peak of £45k debt, from this we decided we needed an initial cash input of £60000, to ensure that even if our estimates were somewhat wrong, and disaster happened, we would still have a £15000.00 buffer amount over what is needed.

This cash flow chart shows our estimated cash on hand available without our initial cash input.

Fig 3. Cash Flow Chart

We decided to each make an initial input of £7000 each, totaling £35000, and to take a business bank loan of £25000 from Barclays, to make up the amount needed. Please refer to the finance document for repayment scheme and withdrawing owner contribution details.

We tried to keep the amount loaned as low as possible, to avoid long term repayment of large amounts, we also felt £7000 each is a reasonable stake to hold in the company we were all confident would succeed.

This graph and our estimation of debt is produced with the assumption not all our projects will be paid for on time, as we want to make the most realistic assumption and plan accordingly.

If all clients paid on time, our peak debt in May would only be £9043.07, massively reducing the amount in initial cash we need to be injected. (£36192.00 unpaid by May)

What Will Be The Capital And Running Costs Of The Company?

Fig 4. Start-Up Costs

Our total starts up cost is £15306.45; this amount is essential for creating a functioning architectural practice.

Whilst this amount seems a lot, £12959.45 of it is one off payments, this figure includes: ARB membership, SketchUp, Vector works, adobe, Initial car instalment, phones, office supplies and a first month advertisement boost.

Fig 5. Fixed Monthly Outgoings

Our fixed outgoings are essential to keeping the business running. They come to a total of £226,809.36 averaging at £18900.78 per month (Differs from figures in excel as initial car premium, initial advertisement boost and cost of phones removed).

Fig 6. Periodic Outgoings

Our Periodic Outgoings are the non-monthly outgoings we must pay as a business. Subscriptions, car premium payment and initial advertisement boost are all amounts we will pay on an annual basis.

These come to a total of £14159.45.

These figures only show the total start-up and running costs of the company. For more information, breakdowns, and explanations of the costs and the decisions we made to keep them as low as possible, please refer to the finance document.

What Profits Do We Expect?

As shown in the graph above we expect great profit, £40281.19 in the first year, this means 14.3% of our total income will become profit.

Fig 7. Profits compared to income/outgoings

From the information seen in our cash flow chart, we expect to be making more money than we are expending from June. As can be seen, it is a steady rise in profits every month after.

Fig 8. Cash Flow Chart

What Sort of Company Will We Be?

-We will operate as a limited liability partnership (LLP), meaning all 5 of us will be joint partners directing the company.

-By entering into this agreement, we will establish how the business will operate, including profit sharing arrangements, how disputes will be settled, and the responsibility of members.

-As we all invested 7K into the company, this will also mean we all have 20% of the company shares.

-By registering as a limited liability partnership, it also means no other companies can use our company name.

-By registering as an LLP, we also protect our personal assets from liabilities of the business.

We will not be hiring any employees for the first year of work and will simply be working as partners.

Plans For Economic Recession/ Unforeseeable Negative External Effects

Disaster Fund

As unforeseeable negative external effects are, unforeseeable, we have chosen to dedicate £1000 per month to an emergency fund, which will be saved until necessary for the company.

Reducing Wages

We are also all fully prepared to lower our owner withdrawal amount, for the better of the company.

Planning Ahead

Along with the disaster fund, we have also planned our predicted cash on hand with the assumption our clients will not pay their debts on time.

This spreadsheet shows the amount we still expect to be unpaid at various points in the year.

Fig 9. Monthly Plan

We have planned our initial cash input to take this into account, and ensure we never go into debt.

Increasing Advertisement

We have chosen to raise our advertisement funding to £1000 per month, at the start of the year, to make sure we receive clients when we first open, and in June when our estimated debt reaches its peak, to ensure we have the business to start becoming profitable as a company. (Based on cash flow chart)

Raising Initial Input

We have also raised the initial cash input amount by £15000.00, as a buffer, to ensure our company will be okay if disaster happens and our projections are massively wrong.

Planning for Inflation

We will adjust our prices in accordance to changing inflation, as shown, the UK’s economy is expected to inflate towards 2033, meaning we expect to raise our fees based on the percentage increases shown.

This will allow us to keep up with outgoings costs and keep our prices viable. (Graph shows rate of increase)

Fig 10. Long-Term Forecast (Knoema, 2019)

Knoema (2019a). Long-Term Forecast. Knoema. Available at: https://knoema.com/rwbagv/uk-inflation-forecast-2019-2024-and-up-to-2060-data-and-charts [Accessed 3 Dec. 2021].

Increasing Wages for Partners (Owner Withdrawals)

Fig 11. Owner Withdrawls

Considering our predicted growth as a company, we would look to moderately increase wages by 20% each year, assuming the growth continues as expected and is not impacted by unforeseeable things.

We initially plan to take a relatively low wage for company owners, to ensure profitability of the company within the first year, which we expect to be our most difficult.

This increase would sit us just below the median wage for partners in 2020, in our third year, and just below the upper quartile for wages in the fifth year.

This rate of increase may not be possible in reality; however, we are all aware these figures will need to be evaluated depending on the performance of the company each year.

These figures showing owner withdrawals don’t include the raised amount for repaying initial owner contributions, as this is temporary, and we saw this as repaying what we were owed.

Plans for Expansion

We would plan to hire 2 X fully qualified architects in our second year of practicing, this would allow us to increase our workload and keep up with demand.

Because we rented an office with a month-to-month contract, we can choose to leave for a larger premises whenever needed.

We would plan to pay £34,000 per year (£2833 per month), this figure seems reasonable as the previous year’s profit would almost entirely cover this amount. However, we expect to make use of these architects and handle an increased workload with them. (Wage taken from median architect’s wage 2020)

We have calculated an estimate of the amount of profit each new worker will bring and come to the sum of £36562.50 profit to the business, from each new worker.

Please refer to the finance document for a breakdown of how we came to these figures and a more detailed explanation for expansion.

We see this as a massive benefit and will combine our hiring of staff with an increase in our advertisement, (from £500 a month to a regular £1000 per month) to ensure the workload and demand follows our expansion.

Withdrawing Owner Contributions

After we move past our point of the most debt in May/ June and start becoming profitable, we decided this would be a suitable time to begin withdrawing our owner contributions to the company. To do this, we have raised our monthly withdrawals by £500, so we will receive this boosted owner withdrawal amount for 14 months, until the total input of £5000 each is fully withdrawn.

7. Marketing Strategy

The marketing mix or the 7ps refers to the tactics we will use to help our company to review and define issues that may affect the marketing of its products and services.

Product

Our practice will be split into two sections – R-build and ‘Other.’ Our R-build focuses on designing adaptable and environmentally friendly structures for vulnerable members of society. There is currently a demand for more sustainable solutions regarding architecture, which we hope to fill.

Price

Our practice will be working on a range of different sized projects in both commercial and residential, as well as our R-Build sector.

People

Our team is made up of 5 qualified architects who have developed and perfected the relevant skills needed over the last 10 years and can achieve the best service for our clients.

Process

Our process involves initial engagement with as many clients as possible via networking and advertising. We will be engaging and networking at a wide variety of architecture events. Clients will be interacting with each member of our team.

Promotion

To help promote our architecture firm, we have selected a few advertising methods, particularly focusing on search engines and social media as that is where research and personal experience show will be the most effective

Digital Marketing Budget Range

Instagram Ads – budget of £150 per month
Wix website - allows us to have a digital presence - £19 per month
Google Ads is an effective method as it allows our firms' website to become more noticeable – budget of £100 per month
Events – allows our business to network with others and build allies - budget for 5 people - £250

One-off Purchases

Mugs - £150 (30)
Stationary (technical pencils and rulers) - £170
Merchandising printing - business cards - £50
Wix annual subscription – £228

First month budget = £1000

Monthly Purchases

Google ads = £100

Instagram ads = £150

Total = £250

The figure below shows that the most effective marketing strategies are through the use of social media and websites/blogs. As a business, we have used both to our advantage in raising awareness for studio NEOM.

Other forms of marketing strategies will involve:

RIBA – there is a list of readily available architects/architecture practices. Promoting our projects will help advertise the practice.
Events – attending relevant architecture-related events/talks on developments in the industry will allow us to network and meet potential clients or allies.

Physical Evidence

Our previous projects are currently displayed on our website and Instagram page. These will help show our clients what previous work we have done before even getting in contact with us.

8. Future Predictions

Financial Recession

Our finance plan references our viability and plans for expansion. The plan also mentions financial recession (see here.)

Long-term Goals

We plan to expand our practice within 10 years to house 2-3 more offices in major cities within the UK. The potential locations we have discussed as a practice include London, Manchester, and Cambridge. We want to help as many people as possible and planning to expand in the future will be a step closer to ending homelessness.

We could also potentially start a charity to help people in need by fundraising and using our clients' connections to promote the charity.

Client